TOPICS
TOPICS
Panel passes bill to increase benefits and hiring incentives
A House Government Reform subcommittee Tuesday passed a bill that would allow the federal government to increase benefits and hiring incentives in an effort to better attract high-quality workers.
The Subcommittee on Civil Service and Agency Organization voted by voice vote to approve a substitute amendment to a bill (S. 129) that has already passed in the Senate.
Subcommittee Chairwoman Jo Ann Davis, R-Va., sponsored a companion bill (H.R. 1601) to the Senate legislation last year. By folding the Davis language into the Senate bill Tuesday, the subcommittee began the process of sending the bill to conference.
"Taken together, these provisions will give managers and employees alike more flexibility, and in general make the federal government an employer of choice," Davis said. "As S. 129 has already passed the Senate, my hope is to see this bill move quickly through the House on its way to final passage."
Davis' substitute amendment makes a number of changes to current federal workforce practices, such as:
- Allowing agencies to more easily award bonuses to recruit and retain employees.
- Permitting federal employees to receive compensatory time off for travel time during non-business hours.
- Providing enhanced vacation benefits to employees who join the federal government in mid-career.
- Granting part-time workers partial credit toward retirement.
- Allowing annuities for federal retirees to begin the day after retirement, instead of a month later.
The subcommittee also accepted an amendment from the subcommittee's top Democrat, Rep. Danny Davis of Illinois, that reinserted two provisions of the Senate bill that were omitted in Subcommittee Chairman Davis' amendment. Danny Davis' amendment restored a provision to prohibit recruitment, relocation and retention bonuses from being paid to political appointees.
"There is no evidence the federal government is having a difficult time in recruiting and retaining political appointees," he noted.
The second provision reinserted would require the Office of Personnel Management to report on the number of bonuses paid under the bill. Davis said that measure "would allow Congress to evaluate whether these bonuses are effective in improving the recruitment and retention of high-quality employees."
COMMENTS
- How about some dental and vision benefits of which we have none!? TC Posted May 20, 2004 1:33 PM
- If these people are really interested in high-quality employees, why don't they look at what they already have? The first thing they should do is eliminate time-in-grade. Nuts. GovExec.com reader Posted May 20, 2004 11:36 AM
- We have to get rid of anyone named Davis in the Congress! This is a very stupid bill. However, it probably will get passed even without evidence that the situations it is supposedly designed to help do not exist in a significant way. If you give a bonus please do the following: 1. The bonus should not be signing bonus - it should be payable over a five year period at the end of each completed year of employment. 2. No one going from the military into government should be allowed to receive a bonus unless they have been out of the military for at least three years and are not part of the reserves or guard. 3. No one without work experience of at least three years should receive any bonus. 4. Anyone that receives a bonus should not be eligible for reimbursement of tuition in any manner for any training or education, especially for a college degree. The Davis' need to remember that this is the US Government and not a private enterprise! They are spending my money and not getting anything but more corruption in the process. tax payer Posted May 20, 2004 6:54 AM
